For

Against

The 5770 is, in general, an odd prospect right now. On the one hand, you get functionality that supports DX11 and its suite of goodies, such as hardware tessellation and improved multi-threading support.

However, as the first mid-ranger with true DX11 capability, we have to remind ourselves that it's just that: a mid-range card. The extra features offered by DX11 require a resource overhead, and when you add in anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, that's an awful lot for a sub £150 card to do.

The HIS HD 5770 offers features close to the best of the 5770s, with two DVI ports, DisplayPort and HDMI-out. And like most 5770s, it's a double-width card. Its ATI-reference looks are fairly sleek, providing you're into the red-and-black thing, and it features a bonnet that KITT would be jealous of.

That leaves the question of performance, which we'll tackle on the next page.